Last Sunday, Ohio Governor and former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich said that he does not have plans to run against President Donald Trump in 2020 and is “rooting for him to get it together.”

Less than a week later, reports have emerged that Kasich may team up with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper in 2020 as independents with Kasich taking the top spot.

“The idea of a joint ticket has been discussed, but not at an organizational or planning level,” said the source, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. “What they are trying to show the country is that honorable people can disagree, but you can still problem solve together. It happens in businesses and it happens in families. Why can’t it happen in Washington?”

Axios learned these points about a possible run with “the Johns,” as those close to them call them:

The two, who got to know each other at conferences, plan to extend their joint platform from health care to two other hot policy areas: immigration and job creation.

On health care (with a detailed plan to be released soon), the two have broadened their efforts to a bipartisan group that includes 11 governors.

The Johns’ jobs plan will focus on the coming displacement from automation, with prescriptions that include trade, workforce training — and an optimistic and hopeful message, balanced with an honest admission that some jobs just aren’t coming back.

The two are talking to major media companies about a possible podcast or cable show to continue cementing their brand. Their conversations would include politics, policy, and pop culture.

In D.C. in early September, the two will hold a health-care conference that includes policy input from the American Enterprise Institute on the right and the Center for American Progress on the left.

Kasich, who’s being advised by veteran consultant John Weaver, is keeping open all his options, including the possibility of primarying Trump in 2020.

Nothing subtle about any of this: Kasich has urged Hickenlooper to visit New Hampshire.

Both are 65 and both were born in the crucial electoral state of Pennsylvania, Kasich from the Pittsburgh side and Hickenlooper from the Philly side (corrected).

Both are proud policy wonks, and their staffs are said to get along famously.

Kasich has done a lot this year that has kept his name in the spotlight. First off, he continues to appear on numerous political shows and does not hold back when he disagrees with Trump.

Second, earlier this year, Kasich released his book Two Paths: America Divided or United, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at the 2016 presidential campaign and harsh words for Trump and failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton:

“And now we were looking on together in shock at some of the things Donald Trump was saying — indeed, at a lot of the things he was saying,” he wrote. “And it wasn’t just Donald Trump, mind you. There was enough bad behavior and unseemly rhetoric going around on those debate stages and at rallies across the country to suggest the death of civilized discourse and respectful discussions.

“Realize, too, that over on the Democratic side of the campaign, Hillary Clinton didn’t distinguish herself in this regard,” he wrote. “She wasn’t exactly taking the high road. She referred to half of Trump’s supporters as ‘a basket full of deplorables’ and started putting people down in order to make her point.

“I couldn’t look Karen and the girls in the eye and tell them I was for Clinton any more than I could have told them I was for Trump.”

“Isn’t that interesting,” Kasich said as the crowd around her gasped. However, without mentioning his political allegiance or correcting the voter, Kasich went on to position himself as a good compromise between Sanders and Clinton saying, “One of them’s too hot, one of them’s too cold, but I’ve got the right temperature.”https://www.redstate.com/aglanon/2016/02/08/shorter-kasich-im-left-hillary./

Dumb and Dumber! Hickey had a hard time winning CO and Kasich is a nut job who wants MediCare for all. Too bad that neither one can tell us how to pay for it. Their only threat to us will be with the millennials who are the most Socialistic bunch ever produced in this nation. I truly believe that they can be talked into going either Communist or Socialist with very little persuasion. Thank you public Ed and the college liberal system.

Kasich started out as a good governor. He had some flaws but he also had some high positive attributes. Since he faded out of the 2016 primaries though, he has been full of sour grapes. Nobody gets excited about him like they initially did when he first became governor. I don’t think his ideas even excite himself anymore. There’s no chance he could beat Trump, as an R or as an I. Wouldn’t surprise me though if switched over to D.

While these two bozos on a ticket together probably wouldn’t have much traction, the worrisome thing here is that such a ticket, properly constructed, would in essence be the Deep State Party. It’s primary function would be to perpetuate the deep state under the guise and attraction of bringing peace, stability and civility to our politics. It would be praised and promoted almost immediately by the media, educators, entrenched politicians, unions, civil rights groups, non-profits, entertainers, personalities, Hollywood types, and miscellaneous blind and impulsive staunch backers of the Democratic Party. Democrats and those groups have moved into a fantasy world. For all its faults and limitations the adversarial two party system is superior at identifying and rooting out fringes on both sides of the aisle and the now legions of corrupt, incompetent and unproductive hangers-on and groupies. I’d be alert for more of this political narcotic balm.

Kasich is being set up as a spoiler. He has always been represented as a conservatively moderate Republican. In fact, he is whatever he is paid to be. And, in this case, if he runs as a third party candidate, it will be solely for the purpose of stealing votes from Trump, should he run for reelection. Floating this idea now is simply to get a feeling for public reaction and if enough favorable reaction is found, to begin developing a strategy for a Kasich spoiled campaign.